Humanverse

Devany vs Deven

American parents have registered 11,986 Devens since 1880, against 1,099 Devanys. Deven is still ahead, with 43 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Devany against Deven, 1880 to 2025 0 150 300 450 600 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Devany Deven

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Deven has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1954 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2022, when Devany had 35 and Deven had 47.

Side by side

  Devany Deven
Total US births 1,09911,986
Most in one year 55531
Babies in 2025 3243
Estimated living today 1,10012,000
Median age today 1625
Peak year 20092000
Best rank 3,088th girls479th boys
Rank in 2025 4,352nd2,884th
First recorded 19811954
Girls / boys 1,099 / 01,316 / 10,670

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Devens alive today are over 25; half the Devanys are over 16. That is 9 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Devany and Deven.